Cerro Castillo.

After one more day in the
Torres del Paine National Park, we (Mel and Mog) are back at the
delightful small town of Cerro Castillo (S51.255015 W72.344318)
the place where we watched the rodeo a few days
ago.

Question: We have been invited to watch the
machine on the right being used. Can you identify it? It was made in Liverpool,
England by Fawcett Preston & Co. Ltd., and is probably well over 100 years
old.

The notice on the front warns that the operating pressure is not
to exceed 2.5 tons per square inch. The entire machine rotates so that one
"chamber" can be filled whilst the other one is being processed. See the bottom
of this page for the answer.

On our last day in the Torres del Paine National Park
we climbed to the top of the short Condor Trail for an excellent view of the
peaks. Note that the lake really is that vivid blue colour because of suspended
particles of silica that are ground off the rocks by the glaciers that feed the
lake.

We also saw about two dozen condors in flight and we were lucky
enough to see two condors on the ground. They are the world's largest flying
bird, and though unattractive, they still manage to look majestic while flying
against strong mountain winds that almost blew us over as we hiked our way up
to the look-out and back down again.

Our last night in the park was spent wild camped in the car park
near Cascada Painewith the towering peaks off in the distance
(S50.942672 W72.791705).

In the morning the mountains take on an entirely different colour
(for about five minutes) in the warm light of sunrise.

Although we had already driven round Cerro Castillo
without seeing any sign of a fuel station, we thought it would be worth asking
at the very helpful tourist information office. "Oh yes", we were told "there
is a fuel station", but it takes a bit of finding (and identifying!). The fuel
station consist of three huts. The two outer ones each contain a very old fuel
pump (one diesel, one petrol). The central hut is where you pay. Judy and Mo
thought it was by far the "cutest" fuel station they had seen during an entire
trip of routine fill-ups.

Whilst we were filling up, a woman came over and told us that in
the large corrugated iron building behind the fuel station they were shearing
sheep, and we were welcome to go and watch. So we did.

The shed could accommodate about thirty shearers, although there
were only six working when we were there. Each sheep takes about two minutes
thirty seconds to shear. The fleece is removed as one piece, and quickly
inspected and de-dagged before being dumped in the empty chamber of the
rotating wool press. When full, the press is rotated and the wool compressed
into a wire wrapped bundle. Each bundle weighs about 500kg.

Stephen
Stewart.

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changed on 2007-01-18This page contains the latitude and longitude (from
GPS using WGS84 Datum) of places of interest.